The rollout of Android 6.0 Marshmallow last year opened a whole host of new features for app developers to play with. One of the biggest was Android Marshmallow’s fingerprint API.
Originally, the fingerprint feature allowed smartphone users to use fingerprint sensors to lock and unlock their devices, doing away with traditional passwords and pattern recognition. With its availability on Android and not just on Samsung devices, developers have found more uses for the fingerprint API. Apps have begun integrating fingerprint scanners onto their platforms, particularly for those that require high security and authorization, such as banks.
The Bank of America and Chase have released separate announcements that their respective mobile Android apps now have built-in fingerprint authentication as an option for users to log in to their accounts.
Customers who have the latest Marshmallow updates on their Android-run devices will be able to simply use their fingerprints to access their bank accounts. This negates having to memorize lengthy passwords, or the annoying need to keep changing passwords every so often.
Bank of America customers will also find new features on the updated app, such as the ability to directly order checks and the option to look at their deposits via photos.
For Chase Mobile, users can log in using the fingerprint reader. But for security purposes, all subsequent transactions will still require a traditional password. This means that if a device’s fingerprint authentication gets bypassed, the hacker will only be able to check on current bank records on the app.
For both banks, the latest version of the apps can be downloaded for free from the Google Play Store. Customers will have to make sure their operating systems have been updated to Android 6.0 Marshmallow and that their devices have a fingerprint scanner before they can make use of the fingerprint feature.
